My Home

My Home

My Recipes

My Recipes

Toddler Fashion

Toddler Fashion

What We Ate In Lagos, Nigeria

Wednesday, 6 April 2016

If you've followed me over the last few weeks you will know that we've just returned from a family holiday to Lagos, Nigeria. It was a pretty special trip. There was 14 of us staying under one roof (my parents in-law's place) across 4 generations and we were there as a 70th birthday gift for my father in law.

I have a bunch of holiday posts about our trip to come and I wanted to start with one about what we ate. I'll start with a disclaimer, the places that we visited were not traditional Nigerian restaurants and I was really surprised at how many different cuisine options there were. The places that we found were often in random streets or behind big locked gates. There's no strips with popular eateries, you need to know where you're going so I thought this would be quite a useful post to write.

I did enjoy some traditional Nigerian food that was prepared at home. My mother in law totally spoilt us by hiring a chef around the house during our time there so for breakfast, lunch and dinner - when we were at home, was freshly prepared Nigerian dishes. One of my favourite dishes called Akara. It's traditionally a breakfast dish and is made with peeled black eyed beans.

I do struggle with Nigerian food sometimes being a vegetarian as they do love their meat and stews with meat stock in it. Even though I do eat fish I have difficulties with the traditional way it's served in Nigeria being in whole, head or tail form. My general rule with eating fish is I'll try it as long as it's not in t doesn't look like a fish. I'm a huge fan of jollof rice. If you've never tried it, you need to! It's rice mixed in with a tomato stew. The flavours are delish!

Akara served at home

A Nigerian cuisine must try for meat eaters is suya. You can get this anywhere from fancy restaurants to the street. Apparently street suya is bomb. It's basically just a meat skewer marinated and served with a peppery spice. This is authentic Nigerian at it's best but you have to find a well prepared one to really appreciate it.

Beef Suya

We stayed in Victoria Island and so all the places we visited were on the island. With only 7 days we

tried to squeeze in as much as what we could but I really felt it wasn't enough time. Next time I would love to go there with some more time to spare.

I'm told that this is the best ice cream in Lagos. It was the only ice-cream we had during our stay so I have nothing to judge that statement but it was hella good! So good we went there twice. This is one of those hidden away gems. Tucked behind the closed gates of the Raddison Blu. My favourite flavour was the cinnamon, it had chunks of doughnut through it. So delish! You can have your ice cream in a cup or if you want to really go all out, a scoop of your favourite flavour can be sandwiched between two waffles and drizzled with a topping of your choice. Do it, you won't be disappointed!

This is an all day dining restaurant with a cafe feel menu featuring burgers, toasties, salads (which are amazing) and meat dishes including suya. It's a casual restaurant but has a fancy feel about it. I love the vibe of this place. Lots of black and white, exposed lightbulbs and touches of marble. The decor is right up my street.

This is a stunning cafe that's connected to a gorgeous art studio and gallery. Inside the cafe is a quirky and cosy space with Africa and International art throughout. This cafe are fab for their baguettes if you fancy a bite that reminds you of home. To remind you that you're actually eating in Nigeria they are served with plantain crisps which is like a banana but has a similar taste to sweet potato. They also do suya on the BBQ. There's a cute little outdoor area which is perfect for social evening dining.

This was not somewhere that we dined but I just had to include it anyway because I think it's a must visit if you're looking for a cool nightspot. They do serve bites on the menu if you fancy but we just had some drinks. This is one gorgeous rooftop and the decor delighted my monochrome senses. The sound of house music is enough to make you dance in your chair and give you chilled holiday vibes but not so loud that you can't join in an enjoy a social group conversation. We had such a nice time here. The grandparents were always on hand to babysit all the grandchildren in the evening and this was the first baby free night out J and I have had for as long as I can remember.

The Blowfish Hotel is another secret nestled beind giant gates. The surrounds of the hotel itself are beautiful and there are little restaurants dotted around the grounds. We went for the Italian restaurant which was poolside and enjoyed a lovely meal with a large group of us outside on an upper deck. You order from iPads, the tech geek in me always gets excited about that kind of thing in restaurants. I wasn't a huge fan of the food but I think it was just a case of bad luck and ordering the wrong thing off the menu. My starter of bruschetta was pretty tasty but my gnocchi dish didn't seem like gnocchi at all, was swimming in sauce and it had a sickly taste of cinnamon all the way through so if you visit, don't order that. The prawn starter was apparently amazing and was big enough to really fill you up. J said his pizza was really nice and the other pasta dishes that were served up got good reviews. Overall the atmosphere is fab and it's a real holiday treat.

Poolside - The Italian restaurant is on an upper deck just behind where I took this photo

Ordering with an iPad

Tomato bruschetta at Le Veranda Italian

Gnocchi in a creamy mushroom sauce at Le Veranda Italian

6. Dough Nigeria - Home delivered
BEST. DOUGHNTS. IN. LAGOS. Oh my, just looking at the picture of these babies is making me drool. Place your order and in 24 hours can be personally delivered to you. They are so fresh and there has been so much thought put into developing the flavours of these doughnuts. They are just incredible.

So there you have it. These are my discoveries for the week that we were in Lagos and I know we only scratched the surface so I can't wait to go back and do some more fab food hunts. Next time we probably won't be lucky enough to have a home cook so I'll need to hunt down the best authentic Nigerian restaurants too.

Are you surprised at the variety of venues in Lagos? Do you have any faves that I haven't mentioned here?

1 comment

It sounds tricky for a vegetarian to eat but you did so well! The ice cream bar at the Radisson looks gorgeous. The photo of you & J on your night out at Fahrenheit is really lovely. How nice of the grandparents to let you have some quality time. Thanks so much for linking up with us at #bloggerclubuk x